14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, Apple has revealed that their iPhone will be getting released in late June. While not all of its features were unveiled so far, there's one more feature the handset might come with. It looks like when the iPhone gets released, its owner might even be able to use it as a remote control device for the Apple TV.
A 'Multi-media center for computing systems' patent application was filed on the 10th of October in 2005, revealing a device, namely 'a media-player with remote control capabilities' that will be used for controlling the TV. Now with all the capabilities the iPhone packs, it wouldn't be such a big deal if controlling your home television set with the handset was one of them.
Considering both the iPhone and the TV are Apple products, it wouldn't be unreasonable if the iPhone was integrated with some of the company's other offerings. What the patent does not mention, however, is any specific devices. But it's pretty safe to say that the devices that can control the Apple TV should be either the iPhone or the next generation iPods.
The patent application was discovered by Looprumors and here's what it states: " It will be appreciated that the computing environment 100 can provide a "central-user-interface" that can serve as a user interface for accessing all the media-components provided in the multi-media center. Referring now to FIG. 1, a main menu 104 displayed on a display 102 can be part of the central-user-interface for a multi-media center provided by the computing system 108.
Furthermore, user input may be entered via an input device 106 (e.g., keyboard, mouse) connected to a computing system 108, and/or via a remote device 107 (e.g., remote controller, media-player with remote control capabilities) whether directly or via a network. The computing system 108 can, for example, be a computer, or a plurality of computers (e.g., a cluster). In general, the computing system 108 includes at least one processor and memory (not shown).
